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Trains and Geographic Locations

Planning my 2014 travel to towns in Italy
Florence - two months (suggestion for one day trips) I have been to Padova, Venice, Lucca, Sienna, San Gimignano., Panzano.
When I leave Florence, do I go to Assisi first or Orvieto? Followed by Rome.
Anyone have a good website of Italy's map.
Thank you,
Firenze 2014

Do you really mean "Anyone have a good website of Italy's map"? Google maps is as good a map as most people need, and I can't imagine you're unaware of it.

If, as your posting implies, what you really meant to ask was "anyone have a good railway map website?", the short answer is no.

Not "I haven't got one" - but there's no such thing. Italy hasn't had a culture of public information since Augustus made himself Emperor of Rome: its culture for the past 2,000 years has been that knowledge is power, and mustn't be shared.

The long answer to your question is to use the bahn.de website to calculate how long an Italian journey will take. No Italian website even lists all Italian railway routes, and most tourist websites - possibly because they're all neo-Communists, but more likely because they're useless tossers - lazily refer only to the government-operated trains: Italy is awash with private railway companies.

If travelling by train, it's marginally wiser to get the slow train from Florence to Assisi (the one the government can't be bothered putting on its own maps), see Assisi, then take the three hour trip, changing at Orte, to Orvieto.

This - of course - omits trains not run by beneficiaries of the Italian public purse. But I think from Florence, that means only the high-speed trains to Milan, Venice, Rome and Naples, which mostly just do what the civil servants do only a bit cheaper and more funkily.

For starting your planning consider the Rick Steves rail maps on line. They don't show every detail but they do show the main tourist destinations and what is linked to what and approximately how much it costs. Seehttp://www.ricksteves.com/rail/map_menu.htm